It’s Christmas eve and the Rehbein family+ is celebrating. “family+” because for Christmas everyone that is loved by the family is welcome and my sisters are taking advantage of this rule. I’m not the only boy sitting around the Christmas tree anymore.
Christmas eve there is also another guest at the Rehbein house, Santa Claus. As you know, only well behaved kids are receiving presents and it turns out, my family behaved decently this year. I figured, on my behalf Father Christmas should bring three presents to the house. But, before unpacking those presents, some context:
The Rehbein family has two Christmas dishes that they eat every year.
Kartoffelsalat and Wiener Würstchen on the 24th
Birds with stuff on the 25th or 26th
My time in Paris and my trips to Italy this year thought me the value of having food and drinks with loved ones. Therefore, it was only appropriate for Santa Claus to bring something that might transfer this experience into a Christmas present.
I have to explain why these presents have everything to do with Italy and not much with France. In Paris there is this store called Eataly which I absolutely fell in love with. After spending multiple hours there and being fascinated by the whole experience I bought the book of Eataly’s founder Oscar Farinetti in which he goes on a road trip to meet a couple of the best wine makers in Italy. Hearing the stories of these people and wineries and the love and passion they put into making there wines, I thought it was more than appropriate to bring some of that fascination and love home to my family.
Based on the stories and learnings from the book I went to choose three of the most delicious wines of Italy which also fit the two Christmas meals we are having at the Rehbein house. I decided to sprinkle on all of that three “life themes”, each related to one of the wines.
Christmas dishes, Italian wines & Life themes
Life is a blend
Dish 1: Kartoffelsalat and Wiener Würstchen
This traditional German Christmas dish is one of the highlights for the family around Christmas time. The recipe of the salad is inspired by my grandmother’s potato salad. Over the years it has been improved and is now slowly reaching perfection. The mayonnaise in the potato salad and the pork/beef sausages are calling for a white wine. And so, Santa Claus brought a “2021 Bucci Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Superiore” made by the Villa Bucci winery.
In the book I introduced initially, Oscar Farinetti meets up with Ampelio Bucci who is known as The Professor in the world of Italian wine and who’s running this winery. Besides the fact that the areas work and life in which Ampelio is involved are extremely multidisciplinary, which is something I’m trying to cultivate in myself on a regular and generally admire in people, the conversation between Oscar and Ampelio leaves us with one core message that I believe to be worth sharing: Life is a blend.
Life is a blend I think to myself and the better you are at blending things the more successful you'll end up being. I think about what you need for your kids, love and rigor. At work you need poetry and math. In life you have to combine honesty and shrewdness, informality and authoritative-ness, self-irony and pride. If human virtues were to flow out of these barrels, the game of finding the perfect blend would never end. I find it natural to turn to Simona, the youngest among us, to say:
"See Simona, don't ever be just one single predictable thing! Try to be made up of lots of different things. Predictable people are boring people!" Ampelio has understood my obsession with apparent contradictions perfectly, and adds his own thoughts: "One of my greatest fortunes is to be able to live my life between the city and the country. I need both places, it helps me to live better. In the country I can develop the farmer's attitude that tends to run deep, while in the city I have to travel fast and have to ability to simplify. This is what makes me complete."
Femininity & Balance
Dish 2. Birds with stuff
This year, we will be 7 for this dish, 9 if we include the big bird and the smaller bird laying on the table. One bottle of wine isn’t enough. We need two.
Piedmont is the region in Northern Italy that grows the famous Nebbiolo grapes. This Region is known for Barolo and Barbaresco wine. And so, the first wine Santa brought for this dish is “Quarantadue 42 Barbaresco 2018”. Here the selection was more based on getting a good Barbaresco than actually relating it directly to a specific winery or person. What Barbaresco wine embodies is meaningful enough.
In fact, this year we will be more men than women at the house, which is the first time in the history of the small family Christmas celebrations. Therefore I thought we needed to balance that out. Barbaresco is the female counterpart of the famous Barolo wine. While Barolo wine can be described as dark and brutish, Barbaresco wine is elegant and striking. I believe balance to be key for long-term flourishing in everything and everyone. Femininity is playing a key role in that. Let’s make sure the Rehbein home remains balanced.
Challenging the status quo
Dish 2. Birds with stuff
To finish the evening in style, Santa is bringing a “fake Barolo” to the house, the “No Name 2019”. This wine is made by the the Borgogno winery owned by Oscar Farinetti himself. It is considered to be one of the top 1% of wines in the world and top 2% of the Langhe which is part of the Piedmont region. While we can expect this wine to have some real character in its taste, it also has character in its story and how the name came to be. And why did I say “fake” previously?
“The story of Borgogno's No Name is that of a protest label that wants to make us reflect on the excess of bureaucracy often found in the wine regulations.
Born as Barolo, Borgogno's No Name is later "downgraded" to Langhe Nebbiolo DOC, to "nameless" wine, which makes it a clear label of protest against the rigidity of the bureaucracy that afflicts agriculture in Italy.”
Challenging the status quo and how things are usually done is fascinating to me especially in an industry as traditional as wine. Let’s enjoy this “Fake Barolo” and let the Christmas magic decide on the meaningfulness of its name, “No Name”.
Merry Christmas!